nafco wrote:Thats a cool shot. Amazing how much has changed in a short time. I understand why the mall was a good idea at the time, but I think it served its purpose and its time to slowly reincorporate that swath of land back to the city the way the BJ's/Pep Boys site will slowly be turned back into a city grid over time.

Thing is, 'big box' structures like the Pep Boys, & BJs are designed to be disposable, I remember reading that Walmart calculates 10 years for it's stores, anything after is gravy. A mall? Not so much, it's go a lot more going into it, both structure wise and the investment the individual retailers and even the theater have made. If a far more obvious knockdown like Target is going nowhere, don't hold your breath for the mall. Look at that chunk of land, including the moribund Newport Plaza shopping center it's about 3/4 the size of the mall + the Marin parking deck.

nafco wrote: What I wish would be demolished is the awful suburban-style Newport mall thats an eyesore, divides downtown and takes up a huge swath of valuable land.

I wouldn't hold your breath! I bet the operator has like a 50 year lease. I guess people go there, though I can easily go a year without setting foot in it. Especially since the Cajun place in the food court went.

When the mall first opened (1989 if I recall correctly), with the exception of a couple of new high rise buildings, Newport was still rotting piers and moonscape with an adjacent neighborhood that was in poor shape. There was nothing nice around the area. You couldn't even drive to downtown because Washington St. terminated in the Waldo area. The road was blocked by a huge mound of dirt that used to be an elevated freight rail line.

The Newport PATH station was a disaster area, as it had been mostly abandoned since the Erie railroad station was torn down in the 1950s. I remember walking over sheets of plywood with mini rivers of water running under the sheets when exiting the station. The light rail was barely in the planning stages.

So I can see why the builder made it like a suburban mall. At the time, they expected people to drive there and take advantage of the 3% sales tax rate... which is what happened. NYC sent agents to the mall at one point, placing "reminders" on cars with NY license plates that anything purchases in NJ would require the payment of NY use tax.

I also miss the Cajun food place. That was my favorite food stop in the mall. I went to the mall a lot less when it left.

Newport circa 1987:

Thats a cool shot. Amazing how much has changed in a short time. I understand why the mall was a good idea at the time, but I think it served its purpose and its time to slowly reincorporate that swath of land back to the city the way the BJ's/Pep Boys site will slowly be turned back into a city grid over time.

nafco wrote: What I wish would be demolished is the awful suburban-style Newport mall thats an eyesore, divides downtown and takes up a huge swath of valuable land.

I wouldn't hold your breath! I bet the operator has like a 50 year lease. I guess people go there, though I can easily go a year without setting foot in it. Especially since the Cajun place in the food court went.

When the mall first opened (1989 if I recall correctly), with the exception of a couple of new high rise buildings, Newport was still rotting piers and moonscape with an adjacent neighborhood that was in poor shape. There was nothing nice around the area. You couldn't even drive to downtown because Washington St. terminated in the Waldo area. The road was blocked by a huge mound of dirt that used to be an elevated freight rail line.

The Newport PATH station was a disaster area, as it had been mostly abandoned since the Erie railroad station was torn down in the 1950s. I remember walking over sheets of plywood with mini rivers of water running under the sheets when exiting the station. The light rail was barely in the planning stages.

So I can see why the builder made it like a suburban mall. At the time, they expected people to drive there and take advantage of the 3% sales tax rate... which is what happened. NYC sent agents to the mall at one point, placing "reminders" on cars with NY license plates that anything purchases in NJ would require the payment of NY use tax.

I also miss the Cajun food place. That was my favorite food stop in the mall. I went to the mall a lot less when it left.

nafco wrote: What I wish would be demolished is the awful suburban-style Newport mall thats an eyesore, divides downtown and takes up a huge swath of valuable land.

I wouldn't hold your breath! I bet the operator has like a 50 year lease. I guess people go there, though I can easily go a year without setting foot in it. Especially since the Cajun place in the food court went.

brewster wrote:Kmart + NDW is a whole lot of space available. They should move the Target there, where it is Downtown is a remarkably poor use of extremely valuable real estate. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Walmart, they seem to feel there's no such thing as building them too close.

As Newport expands to the edge of Jersey City, Target will naturally be replaced with high rises as well. What I wish would be demolished is the awful suburban-style Newport mall thats an eyesore, divides downtown and takes up a huge swath of valuable land. At the very least, they should top off the massive parking deck with turf so the city can get a public park in that space. Most of that goes unused anyway unless its the holidays. But ulitmate dream is that they tear the whole thing down

Kmart + NDW is a whole lot of space available. They should move the Target there, where it is Downtown is a remarkably poor use of extremely valuable real estate. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Walmart, they seem to feel there's no such thing as building them too close.

135jc wrote:Too bad. Might take a while for something else to move in. As far as I know nothing is happening yet with the kmart space. Pentland is also closing if not closed already.

True and National Discount Warehouse is closed.

It took a while but the old Rainbow clothing store was split in two. The UPS Store is in one slot and a new women’s spa is opening in the other slot. The sign is up but I can’t recall the name. The UPS Store is great nice and fresh and the employees are very helpful.

.Looks like La Mexicana down on rt 440 across from Home Depot is dead. There is a big For Lease sign in the window. It opened November 2016.

The sad thing is they took a perfectly good classic diner The Colonette Diner gutted it and turned it into a Mexican themed bar/night club. If you have never been there when it was a diner it had the same diner décor as the Broadway Diner in Bayonne except it was 2 times the size.

The Colonette was the go to diner after a night out in JC back in the day. (the VIP diner too) Long lines to get in at 2 and 3 am. Never understood how it went downhill so fast years before 2016, there were never any cars in the lot. Whereas the similar Broadway Diner has always been popular and still is.

Maybe someone will lease it and put back a sit-down type restaurant. There is nothing like that in the area except for fast food and pizza joints and now that it is picking up with the NJCU West Campus across rt 440 and the future Bayfront project there should be.

I see the old Colonette Diner on rt 440 over by Society Hill is going to be a Mexican Restaurant and Lounge. From looking at their face book account it looks like an interesting space. It’s opening soon.